Receive the Holy Spirit

Ezekiel 37:1-14 John 15:26-27, 16:4b-11

Join me in a moment of silent reflection on the words we have received today… Amen.

As we continue reflecting on these stories together, I want you to take a slow, deep breath – in through your nose and out again slow. Now take another… just three more.

What you have just experienced is the Holy Spirit moving in and through each of us together. The gift of this day is the recognition of God’s active presence in our midst, and the scriptures – particularly the Old Testament – refer to the breath of God as the creative force that shaped the heavens and made order out of chaos.

Chances are good that we have just exchanged that breath in between us, or we will have by the time we leave. Think of that next time you’re on a plane or a bus! I’m not saying you shouldn’t still take a heavy dose of vitamin C first. I’m just saying that there is more between us than just air or particulate matter or even oxygen.

Breathing certainly delivers oxygen to our bloodstream and it fuels all the metabolic processes of our bodies, and so our breath – if it even is ours at all – truly is life giving. Think about that.

Our breath can be taken from us and given back in so many ways. Something amazing and terrible can make us gasp, and sometimes all it takes is someone else recognizing your discomfort to bring it back. An injury can literally stop us from breathing, and yet life can literally be pumped and blown back into our bodies by someone else.

God pumping and blowing life into the church is certainly one way to look at this Pentecost story. However, you describe it, what we are here to celebrate is that the Holy Spirit was given as a gift to the disciples of Jesus, and from them to you and to me. Of course, we’ve been celebrating this gift since Easter. John’s gospel spoils the whole surprise by having Jesus show up and breath the Holy Spirit on the disciples.

But today we step back a little from that story. We step back and hear John’s promise of the Advocate, and we express our deep longing for this Pentecostal fire that we hear about in Acts. Don’t you want it? Doesn’t it sound exciting?

This is the moment we separate the introverts from the extroverts in worship. Extroverts are shaking heads, “yes” and introverts are shaking heads, “no.”

Really though, the scriptures say, “something like tongues of fire” rested upon their heads. Fire is used throughout the Bible to describe God’s activity in cleansing; removing the chaff, refining the silver, stripping something down to its pure elemental essence as an aspect of God’s good creation. This was a holy fire – a fire that did not consume. Sound familiar?

This Pentecostal fire started with the breath of God, and it ignited that part of them which was made to give glory to God. It ignited that part of them which burns but does not give up or become consumed! Oh, don’t you want that kind of fire?

Sure, you do. Sure you do, because we all have times – some more than others – where we feel like those dry bones. We all have those times when we get discouraged; when we get down; when we feel more in touch with our scarcity than God’s abundance, and we can’t say anything but, “Look at the bones!”

That’s how I felt when I heard the interview of a student in Texas after her classmates were shot and killed. When they asked her if she was shocked, she just said, “No. I pretty much expected it would happen at some point.” Look at the bones. That’s what I thought when I saw the report that we’ve lost more children to gun violence in our schools than soldiers on the battlefield.

Look at the bones. That’s how I felt when a Facebook friend from my high school lamented all week long over her son, age 24, in recovery and repairing his life, and killed by a distracted driver texting at 50 mph. Look at the bones.

Lord knows that we need an Advocate. Lord knows that we need someone to walk alongside with us! That’s what that word means in its origin, you know. Sure, you can talk about a legal interpretation – someone that can help us get out of the fryer – but the real offer was to know of God’s active presence.

John’s community had been kicked out of the synagogue. They had been threatened and intimidated. They were expecting the end of the world, and when it did not come they had to make sense of it. So, here’s your answer. Jesus had to go, so that you could know that God is, was, and always will be active and present and making order out of chaos.

The chaos is still around. That just comes with the territory of living in a world where even those that agree that God is active, and present can’t agree on how or why. God still hears our cries, though. God still knows that we need an Advocate, and God knows that they do, too.

Who are they? Well, they are the ones that you are called to walk along side. They are the ones that God is calling to walk alongside with you. They are the ones that may even see how and where the flesh can be knit back together but have not understood that it is the breath of God that gives life and meaning and hope.

They are the ones that are advocating for those who are vulnerable, because it is the right thing to do. Yet they are also the ones who are not hearing the wind of the spirit or feeling the warmth of the church when it comes to social issues.

The net result is almost an entire generation of people that see the church as either irrelevant or hypocritical. I think that is why, in the midst of a royal wedding in England, the Holy Spirit conspired to have an African American Bishop preach. Bishop Michael Curry just couldn’t stop himself, for he was inspired by God to speak of love as the fire that does not consume, and although he started with romantic love, he clearly meant the love that binds us all when he said:

…just stop and think and imagine a world where love is the way.

Imagine our homes and families when this way of love is the way. Imagine our neighborhoods and communities when love is the way. Imagine our governments and nations when love is the way. Imagine business and commerce when this love is the way. Imagine this tired old world when love is the way.

No child would go to bed hungry in such a world as that. When love is the way, we will let justice roll down like a mighty stream and righteousness like an ever-flowing brook.

When love is the way, poverty will become history. When love is the way, the earth will be a sanctuary. When love is the way, we will lay down our swords and shields down by the riverside to study war no more.

When love is the way, there’s plenty of good room — plenty of good room — for all of God’s children. When love is the way, we treat each other like we are actually family. When love is the way, we know that God is the source of us all. We are brothers and sisters, children of God.

Brothers and sisters: that’s a new heaven, a new earth, a new world, a new human family.

Take a moment and breath that in. Take a moment and realize that what we are doing – and what we are called to do – as a church is nothing short of demonstrating a new quality of life where love is like oxygen and our words are heard and understood by everyone, because they are all one word. They are all one word that burns like unquenchable fire but does not consume and only purifies. That word is love.

That word proves the world wrong about sin because it is no longer about breaking rules; it is now about overcoming our separation between God and one another. Love proves the world wrong about righteousness because it is not about being correct as we understand it, so much as it is about being in restored relationships – not privileged relationships – with God, with one another, and with all of creation.

Love even proves the world wrong about judgement because the presence of love has already judged the world by providing the only way to know of God’s active presence in the world. And you know the way. It is by loving God with all we are and demonstrating that love through our care for others.

Come to think of it, that does sound a lot like what we do here. If you don’t believe me, just drive by and see how many people are here on a Friday night seeking redemption through their higher power. Sometimes it’s more than on a Sunday morning.

Yes, beloved, we are becoming known as the “little church that could” around town. As we seek to provide clean water in Cuba, meals for in our community, and spiritual fellowship for children – among other things – it is nothing short of the life giving, chaos conquering, active presence of God that pulls us forward. There is always more to do, and God willing, we will do it. We will do it because the Holy Spirit rests on each of us, dwells within us, and fuels our activism as long as we remain grounded in the love that we proclaim. And to God be the glory for that, now and always. Amen.